POLICE DEMOLISH ILLEGAL STRUCTURES AT POLO CLUB

COUNCIL and State police officers yesterday demolished more than 15 illegal structures at the Nkana Polo Club in Kitwe.

A check at the site by the Daily Nation near the Copperbelt agricultural Showgrounds showed that the structures had been razed in an early morning crackdown.

Some victims of the demolitions said land at the Polo Club was given to them as benefits by their expatriate employers.

Some of the victims Marble Daka , Loveness Mulenga and Kelvin Nkandu said that they had documents for the piece of land from the Ministry of Land.

But Kitwe District Commissioner Binwell Mpundu warned that government will not entertain lawlessness in land acquisition.

Mr Mpundu said in an interview that the demolition of the illegal structures should send a warning signal to others who not to engage in any form of illegality to acquire land.

“Those people have no documents to start constructing in the Polo Club. We cannot have a situation where people want to construct anywhere with no regard for the law. There is too much lawlessness and illegalities in the acquisition of land, which we cannot entertain,” Mr Mpundu said.

“The council should not wait for people to build illegal structures before they could move in, to demolish them. They should ensure that they stop people from building illegal structures on time,” Mr Mpundu said.

And ZCCM-IH Public Relations Manager Roisa Mbatha Kakoma said the land at the Nkana Polo Club belonged to ZCCM-IH and so no one should claim ownership of the same piece of land.

Ms Kakoma said the operation to demolish the illegal structures was a well-executed one and a warning to all those who wanted to encroach on the ZCCM-IH land. “That belong to ZCCM-IH and so people should not be misled by any one. What I said last time has come to pass. I said whoever was building at the same piece of land was doing it at his or her own peril because the structures which were being built would be demolished without compensation,” Ms Kakoma said.
DAILY NATION